Single Tube and bus fares in London are to be frozen for the fourth consecutive year, it was confirmed today.

Pay-as-you-go journeys using Oyster cards or contactless bank cards will remain at the same rate for a further year from January 2, Sadiq Khan announced.

Bus fares – including the popular Hopper ticket that allows multiple bus journeys within an hour – and off-peak single Tube and TfL rail fares outside zone 1 will be held at £1.50.

However daily, weekly, monthly and annual Travelcards are set for an an above inflation rise of 2.8 per cent because of an “in-built” increase for national rail services that is beyond the Mayor’s control.

The increase in Travelcard prices, expected to be announced on Friday, will add about £70 to an annual zones 1-6 Travelcard, currently £2,568, and more than £100 a year to annual rail travel from the Home Counties commuter belt.

The daily and weekly cap on pay-as-you-go Tube journeys is also expected to increase, meaning that travellers who make multiple journeys on TfL services could still end up paying more.

The cost of hiring a Boris bike and journeys on the DLR, Croydon tram and Emirates cable car will remain unchanged.

Mr Khan’s decision to continue to freeze the fares he sets “locks in” rival mayoral candidates into maintaining prices until 2021, should Mr Khan be defeated in next May’s election.

Tory candidate Shaun Bailey has said he will implement an above-inflation rise from 2021 to boost TfL’s coffers.

Mr Khan’s four-year freeze was previously estimated to have cost TfL £640m in lost income, though its passenger income is already £63m above budget this year because of the delay to Brexit, TfL board papers reveal (above).

TfL had calculated on the basis that the UK would leave the EU on March 31, with less travel by Londoners and foreign visitors as a result.

Mr Khan said implementing a 2016 manifesto pledge to freeze TfL fares for four years had made transport more affordable for “millions of Londoners”. By contrast, train fares had risen by more than 10 per cent since 2016, he said.

Mr Khan has not yet announced his fares plans should he be re-elected next May.

Mr Khan said: “If I can freeze fares and provide a better service on TfL services, it’s a disgrace that this Tory Government continues to allow failing private rail companies to get away with hiking up their fares.”

The increase in Travelcards is based upon the July RPI rate of interest, which was 2.8 per cent. The Government promised this summer that 2020 train fares would not exceed the July rate.

RPI is higher than the Government’s more commonly used CPI measure of inflation, which is currently 1.5 per cent.

Figures being presented to the TfL board this week show that it earned £2.22 billion in fares in the first six months of 2019/20, up £63m and the highest six-month figure for four years, as a result of 35 million more journeys than expected.

Crossrail trains, operating under the TfL Rail service until the delayed £18.25bn line opens in 2021, are due to start running between Paddington and Reading on December 15, further boosting TfL income.

Shashi Verma, director of strategy at TfL, said: “We are committed to making travelling by public transport in London as affordable and convenient as possible.

“Millions of people travel using bus, Tube and rail services across London and through our pay as you go fares system we are helping to encourage more people out of their cars and onto public transport.”